SPECIAL REPORT : Part 412
Can Rescue & Thrive project attract public attention?
By Shamindra Ferdinando
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa referred to lawmaker Patali Champika Ranawaka’s public statements, during a recent private meeting with some of his supporters. The President queried whether the former minister’s declarations shouldn’t be examined, taking into consideration his record as a minister (continuously from Feb 2007 to Nov 2019 under different Presidents).
President Rajapaksa questioned whether Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) MP Ranawaka could absolve himself of the responsibility for the current crisis the country is experiencing. In other words, if the Cabinet of Ministers, headed by the President, is collectively responsible for decisions taken, can a member of that Cabinet absolve him/herself of that responsibility?
Against the backdrop of the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) at the receiving end over the current crisis and the bankrupt Opposition trying to capitalize on the public misery, civil society grouping ’43 Brigade’, affiliated to lawmaker Ranawaka, has attempted to capitalise on the situation.
President Rajapaksa’s hitherto unreported comments on the former minister should be examined taking into consideration the project undertaken by the ’43 Brigade.’ MP Ranawaka emphasised at the National Convention of the ’43 Brigade’, in January, this year that whatever the current dispensation professed, the change of the system should begin in Parliament. The MP declared the country has been bankrupted due to the utterly irresponsible conduct of rulers between 2005 and 2015, conveniently forgetting his own leading roles in that regime.
The new political outfit has emerged close on the heels of ruination of traditional political parties and alliances. They have proved their policy statements are meant to deceive the people. Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy, one-time Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (July 2016-Dec 2019), recently blamed the current crisis on the failure on the part of successive governments to manage the expenditure since the country gained Independence. Sri Lanka had been plagued by a toxic combination of populist politics and an entrenched entitlement culture among the people, Dr. Coomaraswamy pointed out adding “Time and again, the electoral calendar has undermined fiscal discipline.”
The Election Commission (EC) organised an event at the five-star Galadari Hotel, to celebrate the national Voters’ Day with the participation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, on March 11, whereas the polls monitoring body, the People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) and the March 12 Movement jointly organised a public meeting at the Sri Lanka Foundation, on March 14, to mark the 90th anniversary of the country receiving universal franchise. Can celebration of such events, with a dance troupe, etc., be justified under any circumstances, at a time the country is on the verge of being declared bankrupt?
The Election Commission (EC) organised an event at the five-star Galadari Hotel, to celebrate the national Voters’ Day with the participation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, on March 11, whereas the polls monitoring body, the People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) and the March 12 Movement jointly organised a public meeting at the Sri Lanka Foundation, on March 14, to mark the 90th anniversary of the country receiving universal franchise. Can celebration of such events, with a dance troupe, etc., be justified under any circumstances, at a time the country is on the verge of being declared bankrupt?The ’43 Brigade’ has paid a glowing tribute to Dr. Coomaraswamy for the way he handled the monetary policy as Governor and head of the Monetary Board after having succeeded disgraced Arjuna Mahendran.
Former Attorney General Gamini Wijesinghe who delivered the keynote speech, at the SLF, lambasted the five-star parliamentary system for the ruination of democracy as well as the national economy. Wijesinghe quietly brashly blamed the executive, the legislature and the judiciary for the current calamitous situation. Damning declarations made by Dr. Coomaraswamy and Wijesinghe, if properly used, can possibly have quite a devastating impact on the major political parties and alliances. It would be pertinent to mention that the UNP is no longer a major political party. Instead, it has been reduced to just one National List seat filled contrary to the stipulated constitutional requirement. The electorate brought the UNP down to its knees at the last parliamentary election whereas its breakaway faction, the SJB, secured 54 seats. Lawmaker Ranawaka’s affiliation with the ‘43 Brigade’ obviously rattles the SJB.
The Opposition needs a common front against the incumbent President. At the 2010 presidential election, the Opposition accepted the then General Sarath Fonseka as the presidential candidate. In spite of being backed by the US and a coalition comprising the UNP-JVP-TNA-SLMC-ACMC as well as the civil society, Fonseka suffered a humiliating defeat.
At the 2015 presidential poll, Maithripala Sirisena quite comfortably succeeded, regardless of the then President’s personal Astrologer Sumanadasa Abeygunawardena‘s prediction in favour of Mahinda Rajapaksa. The coalition that had been unsuccessful at the 2010 presidential election achieved its objective at the 2015 election with the help of millions of dollars that the US spent on the sinister task as was revealed publicly by former American Secretary of State John Kerry.
In the run-up to the 2019 presidential election wartime Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa emerged as the SLPP’s candidate and comfortably won the contest, primarily due to the public losing faith in traditional politicians and the 19th Amendment to the Constitution depriving Mahinda Rajapaksa another chance to contest the presidential poll.
Just two years into the Gotabaya Rajapaksa presidency, the national economy is in tatters. Although the crisis cannot be entirely blamed on the global epidemic Covid-19, the SLPP has sought to largely blame it all on Covid and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Let us only hope Uncle Sam is not involved!
The Opposition cannot afford to pull in different directions. Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, who is also the leader of the SJB, seems to be confident that the current crisis can be solved by defeating Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the next presidential election. Obviously, Premadasa considers himself as their presidential candidate. Therefore, his demand made outside the Presidential Secretariat for early presidential election is nothing but rhetoric. The JVP that staged a far more aggressive protest at the same place ridiculed Premadasa. The JVP for a while forgot their protest targeted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and instead attacked Sajith Premadasa.
Lawmaker Ranawaka joined the SJB protest along with defeated presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka. At one point, MPs Ranawaka and Fonseka flanked Sajith Premadasa as the SJB marched towards the Presidential Secretariat.
Having studied the ’43 Brigade’ proposals, along with a booklet launched by the then Minister Ranawaka, in 2019, that dealt with his performances as a minister over a period of 12 years, the writer sought an explanation from Attorney-at-Law Shiral Lakthilaka, a livewire of the project, as regards SJB MP Ranawaka’s role in the outfit.
Asked in what capacity MP Ranawaka addressed the national conference of the ‘43 Brigade’ held at the Monarch Imperial Auditorium, Sri Jayewardenepura, Kotte, and whether the outfit’s proposals could be considered as a sort of citizens’ manifesto for the next presidential and parliamentary polls? Lakthilaka said: “Not at all. It is a document that proposes policy framework and thinking to face the present crisis. MP Ranawaka addressed the gathering and endorsed the proposals as a leader of 43 Brigade.”
Lakthilaka, one-time advisor to President Maithripala Sirisena, stressed that the citizens’ initiative ‘43 Brigade’ was meant to mobilise people. Having launched ’43 Brigade’ in January 2021, the organisers released ‘Rescue & Thrive’ on January 23, 2022, amidst the current unprecedented economic crisis facing the country. There is no point in denying the fact that the ’43 Brigade’ exploits the ground situation to advance its agenda, the way ‘Viyathmaga’ did in the run-up to the last presidential election. Since the event at the Monarch Imperial Auditorium, in late January, the economy has suffered a series of shocks, with the government sharply divided over its agenda. At the time of the launch of ‘Rescue & Thrive’, the ’43 Brigade’ wouldn’t have anticipated, under any circumstances, the break-up of the SLPP with a section of the Cabinet rejecting the controversial decision on the Yugadanavi deal, sacking of ministers and the Russian invasion of Ukraine that has caused chaos everywhere. The unprecedented increase in the price of petrol and diesel has been blamed on the Ukraine war. It would be pertinent to mention that the US actions in Eastern Europe that threatened Russia’s legitimate security, political and economic interests, prompted President Putin to order the largest Russian offensive in the recent past.
Champika’s role, yahapalana policies
The 66-page publication dealt with the economic crisis and the ways and means of restoring stability. The organisers asserted their efforts influenced the electorate towards what they called a ‘social discourse aimed at a practical social vision.’
At the time, the ’43 Brigade’ publication unveiled its assessment and proposals, the situation was rather stable. However, since then the situation has taken a turn for the worse with practically every essential item in short supply with long queues for gas and petroleum products. Power cuts imposed for want of diesel required to generate power have disrupted life. Even before the disruption of essential supplies and services, the ’43 Brigade’ commented for the first time that the country is under a very real threat of going into bankruptcy.
Declaring that the ’43 Brigade’ has been warning of deterioration of the national economy, the outfit applauded its senior member lawmaker Ranawaka for warning the country in 2014 through the issuance of ‘Aalapaalu Deshapalanaya’ of the impending disaster and again addressing the issue at hand in 2016. However, the MP owed an explanation how/why he failed to explain the inordinate delay on his part to issue the warning having served President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Cabinet since Feb 2007. Ranawaka served as the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources (Feb 01, 2007 to April 28, 2010), Power and Energy (April 29, 2010 to January 30, 2013) and Science, Technology and Scientific Research (Jan 31, 2013 to Nov 18, 2014). Then Minister Ranawaka switched his allegiance to Ranil Wickremesinghe in Nov 2014 along with Maithripala Sirisena. In the wake of the change of government, following the 2015 presidential election, Ranawaka was rewarded with Power and Energy Ministry (January 31, 2015 to Sept 07, 2015). Ranawaka received Megapolis and Western Province Development Ministry on Sept 08 and held that portfolio until the change of the government in Nov 2019. Having abandoned the UNP in early 2020, Champika, the one-time Jathika Hela Urumaya stalwart, contested the last general election on the SJB ticket. His one-time colleague in the JHU and Attorney-at-Law Udaya Gammanpila however opted for a political career with the SLPP and recently ended up with a rebellious faction within the government parliamentary group. Interestingly, the once quite influential JHU is now defunct while Gammanpila’s PHU remains a one-MP party.
The ’43 Brigade’ has placed the entire blame on Rajapaksas for the current situation on the basis of large scale borrowings during the 2005-2015 administration. The outfit says: “Careful perusal of loan installments for 2020 and 2021, excluding the Sri Lanka Development Bonds, would reveal that 70% of the installments in 2020 was of those borrowings during the 2005-2015 Rajapaksa regime. (Fought the separatist terrorists to a finish in the battle field, while the self-appointed international community led by the West kept harping that Lankan security forces were incapable of defeating the LTTE)
The debt burden increased to 77% in 2021. In contrast, installments for loans obtained during Senanayake, Bandaranaike, Jayewardene, Mrs. Kumaratunga and yahapalana eras, combined together amounts to just 23%.”
The ’43 Brigade’ defended the yahapalana administration under fire for taking massive commercial loans on the claim they were necessary to pay installments of loans obtained earlier. The outfit pointed out that out of USD 6.1 bn loans obtained in 2018, a staggering USD 5.8 bn (95% of total borrowings) were repaid as installments and interests. If not for IMF loans, the country would have been bankrupt during the 2016-2019 period due to loans obtained during the Rajapaksa administration.
The refusal on the part of the current dispensation to seek IMF assistance should be examined against the backdrop of claims the decision to do away with IMF assistance following the 2019 presidential election caused the crisis. Former Governor of the Uva, Southern and Central Provinces Keerthi Tennakoon is also on record as having blamed the SLPP government for breaking off negotiations with the IMF. The NGO activist who received multiple top appointments, courtesy Sirisena, has faulted the SLPP over the collapsing of talks with the IMF that resulted in the present crisis.
The ’43 Brigade’ accusations that feasibility studies and national procurement guidelines had been disregarded for the benefit of those who wielded power and their associates cannot be ignored against the backdrop of accusation they had amassed massive wealth. The outfit’s comments on financial status of the country at the time of the 2015 change of government are of crucial importance. According to a comprehensive study that had been conducted with the help of the IMF, some borrowings were actually hidden within state institutions to suppress the actual national debt.
Let me reproduce verbatim what the ’43 Brigade’ stated about yahapalana policies: “The key priorities of that government was to take steps to ensure that there was fiscal discipline within the government, improve economic competition, improve the image of the government by working in accordance with good governance principles, protect the rights of the people, democratisation of state rule and lay the foundation for an innovation economy.”
The recent accusations directed at the yahapalana government by former Attorney General Gamini Wijesinghe cannot be ignored. Wijesinghe went to the extent of blaming the UNP-SLFP administration for paving the way for the 20th Amendment by its failure to properly implement the 19th Amendment to the Constitution enacted in 2015.
Fall of yahapalanaya, GR’s emergence
The ’43 Brigade’ blamed what it called internal conflicts within the government and Treasury bond scams perpetrated in Feb 2015 and March 2016 for its downfall. The outfit also found fault with the yahapalana administration for its failure to make the public aware of the crisis caused by the previous administration. The pathetic failure to punish those who had been accused of waste, corruption and serious irregularities, too, contributed to the public losing confidence.
Champika’s outfit quite correctly explained how unprecedented tax concessions as well as reduction in VAT within weeks after the Nov 2019 presidential election eroded the national economy struggling to cope up with the growing crisis. The national economy has been experiencing difficulties at the time the change of government took place and those who advocated tax concessions should accept the responsibility for the current crisis. The current dispensation is in deepening turmoil with the divided SLPP parliamentary group pulling in different directions while some have chosen to remain silent.
Recent declarations made by Dr. Coomaraswamy and Gamini Wijesinghe should prompt the electorate to seriously think of the current political party system that has ruined the country. All those who had been previously elected to Parliament and in the current Parliament should admit the mayhem caused by them due to their selfish shortsighted policies and apologise to the nation. Genuine recovery efforts can take place only if they accept what they have done to the country.
